Rare conjoined twins with one head in Amara

MISSAN / IraqiNews.com: The al-Sadr Public Hospital in the city of al-Amara witnessed the delivery of two conjoined twins with one head in a rare case inside Iraqi hospitals, medics said. “The birth was very strange. One baby was born with a headless fetus in his abdomen and had birth defects,” Dr. Iman Khammas, the head of the hospital’s pediatric ward, told IraqiNews.com news agency. She attributed the case to the pregnant mother’s use of medical drugs without first referring to a specialist physician. “The mother was also vulnerable to radioactive contamination,” added Khammas. Amara, the capital city of Missan province, lies 390 km south of Baghdad. Missan had witnessed during 2008 weird deliveries, like the harlequin babies, due to radioactive weaponry left by pervious wars in rural and densely-populated areas. Several southern Iraq provinces were susceptible to radioactive contamination during the second Gulf war of 1991 as a result of U.S. forces’ use of radioactive materials in the 40-day war. Harlequin-type ichthyosis is a skin disease, the most severe form of congenital ichthyosis, characterized by a thickening of the keratin layer in fetal human skin. In sufferers of the disease, the skin contains massive, diamond-shaped scales, and tends to have a reddish color. In addition, the eyes, ear, mouth and other appendages may be abnormally contracted. The scaly keratin greatly limits the child’s movement. Because the skin is cracked where normal skin would fold, it is easily pregnable by bacteria and other contaminants, resulting in serious risk of fatal infection. Sufferers are known as harlequin fetuses, harlequin babies, or harlequins. The harlequin-type designation comes from both the baby’s apparent facial expression and the diamond-shape of the scales. AmR (S) 1